Microsoft has made Windows 8's final release available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers, so if you are one of those - have fun. The 90-day trial has also been released, so us mere mortals can have a go at it as well. The evaluation version is Windows 8 Enterprise, so it contains a number of features regular users normally won't see. As far as I can tell - it's a bit unclear - the trial version cannot be upgraded to a final version a few months down the line. Happy testing!

Oh Windows 8 how do I hate thee? let me count the ways: 1.- Tile UI quickly becomes a mess if you actually install any programs, 2.- Many of the "apps" (oh how I hate that word now) including those by MSFT are low res crap that looks bad even on my 1600x900 widescreen, 3.- Last one I used (CP, haven't had a chance to try it in RTM) you had to fricking download a 200Mb "app" and wanted an XBL account to play freecell... it's fricking freecell not an MMO! 4.-Without touch the UI is clunky as hell, 5.- Locking out the ability to just go to desktop means I'm trapped in TIFKAM (The Interface Formerly Known As Metro) whether i want it or not, 6.-Most of the under the hood changes could be trivially ported to Win 7 but I'm sure they won't, 7.-The new "faster boot" is actually an ugly MSFT hack (hybrid boot) that will cause problems down the line I'm sure, 8.- The MSFT appstore makes GFWL look good, 9.- After installing more than a dozen programs TIFKAM goes so tile crazy that the only way to use the OS is to bypass TIFKAM using the keyboard making the whole new UI completely pointless, 10.-The "one app at a time" full screen garbage wastes too much space and the low res tablet UI design makes it look just nasty as it wastes my monitor.

That enough for ya? If I spend another 30 minutes in Windows "LOL Hai! I IZ A Cellphone now LOL!" I could probably add a dozen more but then I'd probably pull an Elvis on my monitor and I don't want to buy a new one. As one of the poor bastards that will have to support this turkey (Although from the reaction of my customers the only "support" will be in the form of "Kill that ugly thing and put win 7 on!") I'll buy the $40 Win 8 Pro and run it in a VM just to learn how to fix the turd but that is gonna be about as pleasant as Vista with its constant "Cancel/Allow?" broken UAC mess.